Growing up in Detroit, I grew up with Motown in the house - a lot of Motown and Philadelphia soul, artists like Marvin Gaye of course and Curtis Mayfield. I remember Isaac Hayes, the soundtrack from ‘Shaft’ had come out - I think I was around 4 or 5. Supafly was out at that time. I had a babysitter who would come over and play a lot of 50’s music; she’d play 50’s doowop on the radio. There was always a lot of music going on. My father was a jazz musician; he played piano, trumpet and drums. My mother was in an R’n’B group, they recorded a little 45 locally. As I said, we listened to a lot of Motown - in fact, my grandfather’s first cousin is Berry Gordy. My uncle managed lots of jazz bands and R’n’B bands, so we’ve always been musically inclined and had an ear for it. I guess I get it mostly from my father - he was an artist and a musician and I picked up the same things from him. I’m an artist as well, an illustrator. I do mostly pencil and charcoal renderings. I’m not really a painter - though he was painting and drawing and doing illustrations. I do some graphite renderings too.
I was influenced by my father - I wanted to play trumpet like he did. He died when I was very young though, I was six when he passed away. At my grandmother’s house there’s a painting of him, and below the painting there’s a glass case with his trumpet and his drum sticks in it. So all I remembered growing up was seeing that trumpet and that made me want to take it up, which I did when I was in Grade School. I played trumpet for maybe a year or so - I did a couple of recitals but after a while I lost interest. I think everybody went through that - you know, you get bored with it and sort of slack off.
 
When did you start picking up music again?
It had to be around ‘88-‘89. I had always been interested in music - in playing music and DJing. I was collecting records I liked and just keeping my ear to the ground. Any music I heard, I’d listen to intently. I’d check for how many instruments were on each track, I’d read the credits to see who played what instrument in what band; I was obsessed in that way. I didn’t really get serious until ‘90-’91, but I always wanted to play music as far as I could remember.
I started to produce a bit more and I started recording some demo tapes - I’d got a drum machine and a Roland TR505 from a pawn shop that I started making beats with. I was going to a studio where I paid $15 an hour to make a demo. I met a guy called Mike Clark through my girlfriend at the time - and he knew everybody! He knew Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, in fact all the DJs and producers in Detroit. He introduced me to Mike Banks and I let him hear a demo tape. I think it was a Public Enemy horn sound that I ripped off and made a beat, and Mike was interested. I think what caught his interest was the drum programming. So he wanted to hear some more…and they happened to be starting work on a compilation. So I came along and did two tracks on the album as an MC! Not a producer, an MC. You know, I was interested in hip house at the time - I didn’t really want to be an MC but I couldn’t find anyone else that was willing to do it. I wanted to find an MC that was sort of a cross between Chuck D and Q-Tip for some kind of political abstract MCing. But I couldn’t find anybody so I decided to go ahead and do it myself. So yeah, we wrote two tracks with me as an MC and they produced the beats and we went from there. This was happening in about 1991.
 
When I recorded those tracks, UR wasn’t even up and running yet. It was just an idea, something that was coming alive as a production unit between Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. I just happened to meet them just before it started. Slowly it evolved to the stage where I was a more active member of the group, especially with the live shows and the label Hardwax. They helped me start that and helped me develop as an artist.
Pretty much after we did the X102 project, Jeff and I kind of branched off and started Axis. It was more of a housey, abstract sound that was different from the experimental techno from UR, and that was different from the Detroit Metroplex and Transmat/KMS sound. It was more of a grounded sound.
M-Plant started in ’94. It kind of borrowed from the sound I was using from Axis and really expanded on that sound. I had developed this “grey area” sound - what I mean by that is that in Detroit, even when the sun is out, there’s something in the atmosphere. I don’t know if its pollution or whatever, but the sky has that grey haze over it. It’s got to be something from the industrial factories there. I’d never really heard a sound like that before and it came from a Roland Juno - it was a chord sound that really went along with my depiction of what Detroit was at that time. A lot of buildings were abandoned and there was a lot of lifelessness in the city, especially downtown. The M-Plant, in minimalism, kind of reflected that. I remember thinking of Detroit like a museum. You know, like a work of art standing still, suspended in time. There wasn’t a whole lot of activity going on.
I haven’t been back to Detroit for about a year but downtown is really very much alive. It’s coming back and thriving, which is good to see. Some people ask me, “How relevant is Detroit musically now?” Detroit will always be relevant – it’s forever, you know? A timeless city that’s birthed Motown and Detroit techno, both of which are timeless too…music that will be here forever; you can’t put a date on it. I still play some Transmat songs and some KMS and some Juan Atkins, Model 500, and it’s still just as inspiring. It will go on forever - so I really can’t understand how people can ask that question - people are still checking and taking influence from Detroit in 2007. You just don’t want to get caught up in trying to be what Detroit used to be. I think many artists try to recapture that Detroit magic, but the best thing you can do for Detroit techno is to keep expanding and keep reaching. At that time, they were reaching as far as their imaginations could go, so to pay homage to that is to keep pushing your imagination to the extreme.
These days I am focussed purely on minimalism and really embracing minimalism, because it’s taken on a life of its own. It’s now a music style separate from techno. I would never have imagined that it would take this direction. I didn’t see that one coming! I saw minimalism in life becoming more and more evident - in furniture, in electronics, in art, in automobiles, appliances - you know I could see that coming. But, as far as music itself being thought of now as an art form? Back then, I think people looked on at it as a trend but they didn’t realise that minimalism is an art form. I did not realise it would take on this characteristic as it has now. So, where I’m at right now is embracing minimalism and seeing how far I can push it - in my interpretation of what simplicity and the music is all about. I am really representing it as an art form and not a trend. As the future evolves, we’re going to get more and more minimal…
 I think the first time I played at fabric was around ’99, 2000. I remember meeting Sanj, the fabric sound engineer. I remember meeting him first, and then later Judy of course. I remember Sanj just being a super stand up guy - he had a lot of energy and he was always willing to accommodate me. He was fantastic - I told him what I wanted to do and told him how I wanted to set up and he was so understanding. He’s like a buddy to me - when he’s on the road it’s like “cool - I’m going to meet Sanj!” Obviously I love Judy and the whole crew but he was the first guy I ran into.
I generally play in Room 2 at fabric. There’s a great atmosphere in there and I love the rapport that I’m able to have with the crowd in there. There’s some good magic in that room. It just fits really nicely.
Ideas are popping into my head. The DJ mix will be enhanced with live elements added to the mix. The live elements are just tracks or patterns - not even songs. They’re rhythm patterns that will be exclusive to the CD.
A set from fabric is the only way I want to go. This mix has to be about the club. I’d like it to be dancefloor orientated and to take the listener on a trip. Any project I do, I like to read like a book. I like it to tell a story, you know? Not to just be random songs or tracks. I t has to have continuity to take you on a ride. It should have a concept and be able to translate and read as such.

IRobert Hood is planning a new Monobox album right now. Other than that, to continue to embrace minimalism and to keep reaching.
 
Fri June 25. Perth, Ambar
Sat June 26. Sydney, The Civic
Fri July 2. Melbourne, The Likes Of You
Sat July 3. Brisbane, TBA

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